Former Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul Wednesday ripped House Speaker Paul Ryan's assertion that the GOP would govern its national convention in July by the rules — countering that "the rules haven't been written yet."

"When you say 'we're going to adhere to the rules,' you realize the rules haven't been written yet," the Kentucky senator, who dropped out of the 2016 race in February, told Jake Tapper on CNN.

"So what is extraordinary, and it is extraordinary, that people by the millions have voted in a primary and 110 people will decide how we're going to make the rules," Paul said. "You can't say we're going to obey the rules. The rules have yet to be written.

"The convention will abide by rules that are written in the first day or two by 110 people," the senator said.

In a CNN interview Tuesday, Ryan — who is expected to preside over the four-day Republican National Convention at the Quicken Loans Arena — said that "we are going to follow the book by the rules.

"That is exactly how this convention is going to be run," Ryan said. "It's very important that it's done exactly that way."

The Republican National Committee's rules committee consists of 112 party delegates from around the nation. The group is meeting this week in Hollywood, Fla.

Front-runner Donald Trump has slammed the GOP's delegate-selection system for weeks, calling it "rigged" to favor establishment candidates.

In his interview Wednesday, Rand Paul referenced how his father, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, was blocked from obtaining delegates at the 2012 convention in Tampa, Fla.

Convention delegates adopted a rule that year proposed by the rules committee that required candidates to win at least eight states to appear on the ballot in Tampa.

The controversial regulation, known as Rule 40(b), sought to prevent Paul's supporters from placing the congressman's name in nomination or acknowledging his votes in a roll-call vote.

Paul lost the nomination to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

"They told my dad that you have to be nominated by eight states or your votes don't count," Rand Paul told Tapper on Wednesday. "The interesting thing is, even though you can watch the proceedings, when the podium said, 'Iowa would say 28 votes for Ron Paul' and the podium would say '28 votes for Mitt Romney.'

"It's extraordinary that the rules are written after the primaries," he said. "It will come down to what the rules are."

Former Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul Wednesday ripped House Speaker Paul Ryan's assertion that the GOP would govern its national convention in July by the rules — countering that "the rules haven't been written yet."